Scarlet Days (1919)

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  • SCARLET DAYS


    DIRECTED BY D.W. GRIFFITH
    D.W. GRIFFITH PRODUCTIONS
    ARTCRAFT PICTURES CORPORATION
    PARAMOUNT PICTURES



    INFORMATION FROM IMDb


    Plot Summary
    A romantic bandit named Alvarez, wanted for raids on the mining camps of the California gold rush in 1849, is reformed by the love of a good woman.
    Written by Jim Beaver


    Cast
    Richard Barthelmess ...Don Maria Alvarez
    Eugenie Besserer ...Mrs. Nell Winters aka Rosie Nell
    Carol Dempster ...Lady Fair
    Clarine Seymour ...Chiquita aka Little Flameheart
    Ralph Graves ...John Randolph aka Sir Whiteheart
    George Fawcett ...The Sheriff
    Walter Long ...King Bagley aka Knight of the Black Stain
    Kate Bruce ...The Aunt
    Rhea Haines ...Spasm Sal
    Adolph Lestina ...Randolph's Friend
    Herbert Sutch ...The Second Sheriff
    J. Wesley Warner ...Alvarez's Man


    Directed
    D.W. Griffith


    Writing Credits


    Stanner E.V. Taylor ... (writer)


    Produced
    D.W. Griffith ... producer


    Cinematography
    G.W. Bitzer


    Trivia
    Unknown


    Goofs
    Unknown


    Filming Locations
    Tuolumne, California, USA


    Watch the Movie


    [extendedmedia]

    [/extendedmedia]

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 7 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Scarlet Days is a 1919 American silent western film produced and directed by
    D. W. Griffith and released through Paramount/Artcraft Pictures, Artcraft being an affiliate of Paramount.
    Richard Barthelmess stars in a role for which Griffith had screentested Rudolph Valentino.
    It is considered by many to be one of Griffith's worst films.


    Considered a lost film, it was found in the State Film Archives of the Soviet Union,
    which donated it to the Museum of Modern Art.



    User Review


    Forgotten Griffith Western
    22 January 2010 | by Michael_Elliott (Louisville, KY)

    Quote from michael

    If there was ever an example of too much plot in a short-running film then this would be it. Lost for many decades until a print turned up in Russia during the early 70s, this Western is one of the least known features from Griffith. The film has several story lines going at once but the main one deals with a young woman (Carol Dempster) who is told by her dying aunt that she has a mother living in San Francisco. The woman travels out there not knowing that her mother (Eugenie Besserer) is a saloon gal who is about to hang for accidentally killing the woman trying to steal some money she was saving for the kid. The town owner (Walter Long) allows her to meet with her daughter but soon a Mexican bandit (Richard Barthelmess) and another man (Ralph Graves) want to try and make sure the mother and daughter don't have to separate. All of this plot takes place during a 75-minute movie and there's just way too much going on here and not enough detail is given to any of it. There are some great performances scattered throughout the film and that's the main reason to watch this but in the end you have to consider this a major disappointment from the legendary director. Again, the biggest problem is that we've got a story worthy of a three-hour epic yet we have very little time to really dig into it. We never really know why Long and the Sheriff (George Fawcett) are so against the mother. We never really, fully get to know why the mother stayed away from the child. We get Graves' character who has a minor story himself but we never get too much detail to fully understand anything he's doing. Another major problem is Dempster and I'm not one of those who like to kick her around even though it's clear someone like Lillian Gish would have been a lot better in the part. Dempster has way too many moments where it seems like she's just looking around not knowing what to do and this is rather distracting. She really never seems comfortable in the role and this certainly hurts the film. Fawcett, Long, Graves and Besserer all turn in fine performances but the real stand out is Barthelmess who is simply amazing in the role of the Mexican bandit. I've seen plenty of his performances and this here is by far the best work I've seen from here because there's not a single second where I didn't believe him in this part and he had a certain grace and charm that really carried the film. The ending will remind people of the ending to THE BIRTH OF A NATION as we have a group of people taking shelter in a cabin while trying to fight off the bad guys. While there's some nice editing and cinematography here, there's never any real suspense like that 1915 film and in the end the entire movie is pretty disappointing.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 6 times, last by ethanedwards ().